StarOffice (also known as StarSuite) is Sun Microsystems's commercial office suite software package.

History

StarOffice was originally developed by the German company StarDivision, founded by Marco Börries in 1986. The development of the integrated StarOffice started at the end of 1994. Until version 4.2 StarOffice was based on the platform independent C++ class library StarView .

The company and the rights to StarOffice were acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999 for US$73.5 million, as Sun were seeking to compete with Microsoft Office. Sun soon offered StarOffice 5.2 as a free download for personal use.

Sun then went through a similar exercise to Netscape's release of Mozilla by open-sourcing most of the StarOffice code-base. The resultant open-source codebase is developed as OpenOffice.org and is contributed to by both Sun and the open source community. Sun then takes a "snapshot" of the OpenOffice.org code base, integrates proprietary and third-party code modules and markets the package commercially.

Added proprietary components include:

• Several font metric compatible unicode TrueType fonts containing bitmap representations for better visuability at smaller font sizes
• Adabas B database
• Some templates
• Clip art gallery
• Some sorting functionality for Asian versions
• File filters for most of the older wordprocessing applications (including EBCDIC)

Traditionally, StarOffice licenses have been sold for around 70 USD, but in 2004, Sun planned to offer subscription-based licenses to Japanese customers for about 1,980 JPY (19 USD) per year (Becker, 2004). P. Ulander, a desktop products manager for Sun, acknowledged that Sun planned to expand subscription-based licenses to other countries, as well. Sun offer educational licensing to academic institutions and individuals for the cost of the media or of a download.

References

• Becker, D. (2004). Sun readies StarOffice subscription plan. Retrieved January 16, 2004.